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Confirming
Facts Before Reporting

An
EverestNews.com Editorial Comment: Dead men don't make phone
calls...

First
off, Zeddy, the Everest climber from Kuwaiti, is "...quiet
well and He is in a good spirits..."

Last
year two deaths were reported on the south side
of Everest when no climber died. The one death
was reported by a web site, the other by a
large American news service. Both reports were
false.

This
year, EverestNews.com
received news on the 23rd that a web site
reported: "Literally they tell that Zeddy
could be
dead". Another site seemed to state
Zeddy was in a similar condition.
EverestNews.com was concerned and started circling
the wagons as we do. We found it very odd that
these reports appeared to had been filed before
Zeddy had phoned in a dispatch.

Dispatch
Six 4/23/01: Hello
EverestNews.com readers! As you have noticed, we
have made it to ABC. I decided to change its
name from ABC to KBC (Kuwaiti Base camp). It has
been quite windy and we have one of our member
went down due to altitude illness (he is our
camera man) we are sure he well recover in time.
Zeddy

How
could Zeddy be dead and phoning in dispatches?

On
days like this, we just want to quit !

Several
other "reports" indicated Zeddy in
various states and conditions along with days
and times when he was moved from place to place.
Many of which were incorrect from one to all the
details. One report posted on the 26th appeared
pretty close!

To
make a long story short, Zeddy did have some
problems and was bought back to Kathmandu.
EverestNews.com was in contact with the
expedition the whole time. We decided to hold
the news because of all the confusion and we
knew the family was not notified.

His
friend Martine told EverestNews.com: "I visited Zeddy in the hospital
and he is quiet well. His is in a good spirits
and should be out in two days. "

Our
advise to the journalists, and those playing
journalists out there:

First,
please
before you report dead climbers,
radio/e-mail/call the expedition they are on and
ask !

Second,
please be careful about reporting rumors. If it
is a rumor, and you REALLY have to report it,
add that it is a rumor.

Third,
be careful about reporting missing climbers. All
you do is get all the families worried when most
of the time the guy is just out back doing his
business. We have had mothers on the phone with for hours crying when their boys were fine.
We had to take the phone number off the site
because of this. One site, that has now
went broke, was famous for reporting missing
climbers.

Fourth,
it is not unusual for climbers to come off the mountain not
feeling well. This is normal, many will descend
and come back to climb again in a few days.

These
bad reports takes so much of our time. We can't
address all of them or we would do nothing else.
If
is hard to predict who will come back from
Everest. We know that every year some climbers
will die. The question is always who and how
many. But dead men don't make phone calls. Try
to be careful and show a little respect to the loved ones out
there who care about these people.